Felipe Massa’s second Brazilian farewell is set to be a promising one as he finished FP1 in seventh, first of the midfield pack and continued to prove his pace through the following sessions showing his knowledge the circuit.

Massa’s teammate Lance Stroll suffered a disappointing FP3 after he received a suspected gearbox problem early on and in due course a five place grid penalty, leaving Williams with work to do before qualifying.

Brendon Hartley pulled over in just his second lap in FP1 due to an engine failure, before Pierre Gasly retired with the same issue as the Renault engine continued to disappoint the Toro Rosso team.

The drivers have 10 place grid penalties and will almost certainly be starting from the back of the grid this weekend.

In a developing story, Toro Rosso slammed Renault over their recent engine fatalities and it is rumoured that the French company may withhold the engines due to a raw this morning.

Former Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel lost the rear end of his Ferrari at turn ninth on Friday morning finding himself in the grass as he struggled to sixth in FP1, whilst in FP2 he lost the car at the pit entry in a close shave with the barriers.

It took until FP3 for the Ferrari’s to show their true pace as they engaged in competition with front runners Mercedes, they would hope to compete through to Qualifying later this afternoon and challenge for pole.

Christian Horner confirmed that the two Red Bull cars are running ‘new bits’ on their cars ahead of the upcoming season, but in final practice the two cars struggled to compete with their rivals Mercedes and Ferrari.

Max Verstappen rode the kerb in the final sector and the young Dutchman ended up facing the wrong way in the final session after struggling with oversteer.

His teammate, Daniel Riccardo will also encore a 10 place grid drop due to an engine change following his retirement in Mexico two weeks ago.

Recently crowned Formula Two champion Charles Leclerc made his fourth free practice appearance this season taking the wheels of Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber on Friday morning.

The Monegasque is expected to race for the Swiss outfit together with fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member, Antonio Giovinazzi.

Giovinazzi took the wheels of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in FP2 to make his sixth practice appearance for the team this season, following his Grand Prix debut earlier this season subbing for the injured Wehrlein in Australia and China.

Newly crowned GP3 champion, George Russel made his free practice debut on Friday, when he took over Sergio Perez’s Force India. Russel will also participate in FP1 in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight time, this time in place of Esteban Ocon.

Sport

Tweet Evgeni Vakov and Zuzanna Marciniak bring you all the action from day eight of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Great Britain’s Lizzy Yarnolds became the first ever women to defend her Olympic skeleton title after edging out German Jacqueline Loelling by 0.45 seconds. Bronze went to another Britt Laura Deas who was just 0.17 seconds out of the silver medal. Yarnolds was second before the fourth runs 0.02 behind Austria’s Janine Flock but a new track record in the final run allowed her to retain her gold medal….

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Tweet Evgeni Vakov and Zuzanna Marciniak bring you all the action from day six of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Norway finally won their first men’s downhill gold medal thanks to 35-years-old veteran Aksel Lund Svindal, who also is now the oldest Olympic alpine gold medallist Svindal edged compatriot Kjetil Jansrud by 0.12 seconds while current world champion Beat Feuz from Switzerland finished a further 0.06 behind. Sochi winner Matthias Mayer from Austria did not manage to repeat his performance from four years ago and finished in ninth place….

Culture

Tweet It’s that time of year again where people have made their New Year’s resolutions and are now waiting for all the best festival line-ups to be announced; we have some great news… Spring Break Amsterdam Festival have released their incredible 2018 line-up for the three-day metro-festival. The acts revealed include Chase & Status (DJ set), Shy FX, Wiley, General Levy, Big Narstie and High Contrast, plus many more. The festival takes place on Sunday 8th, Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th April and tickets are already selling extremely fast. The…

Tweet It’s almost Christmas and a spontaneous trip lends you 24 hours to explore Munich, the capital of Bavaria, so what does one do? If you are anything like me, you get on the old interweb and do a spot of investigating as you pass the journey to Gatwick at ridiculous o’clock in the morning. Recent news stories have lowered Tripadvisor in your estimation, so you delve a little further. Travel and food writers are my ubiquitous go-to. I want to see the sights and get a flavour of München in…

Tweet Many vegans and activists for the cause have been likened to that of extremist cults, but this is not the case at all. As a student recently starting my course and living in Eastbourne, I was astounded by how alien the lifestyle of residents here appears to that of Brighton. Neighbour to one of the most vegan friendly recognised cities in the UK, Eastbourne seems to have so little acknowledgement for the dietary movement and the benefits it evokes. This lack of awareness stirred up confusion in my mind and…

Following the recent release of their album, Our Pleasure, the no-frills-attached notorious Canadian four-piece punk rock band Single Mothers hit the Green Door Store in Brighton on November 15 as part of their UK/Europe tour.